In Rajinikanth’s 2.o, Shankar and Oscar-winning Resul Pookutty have attempted to make Akshay Kumar sound very different. His look is already a talking point for the film.

Akshay Kumar’s character in Shankar’s 2.o is called Dr Richard. The film stars Rajinikanth as Dr Vaseegaran and the robot Chiti.

Shankar’s sequel of his highly successful 2010 film Enthiran (Robot) titled 2.o will release in January 2018. On Wednesday, the first look poster of the film’s lead heroine Amy Jackson was revealed where she is seen sporting a body suit, which is a patchwork of metal and fabric. Fans have been treated to the first look of the principle characters, Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar, in November 2016. While Rajinikanth’s appearance was, more or less, in line with Robot’s look, it was Akshay’s menacing look that created quite a flutter.

Now, it has come to light that Dr Richard (that’s what Akshay’s character is called) will have a very different voice too, reports Bollywood Life. While his voice in Tamil and Telugu will be dubbed, director Shankar wanted Akshay’s voice to sound different in the film’s Hindi version. That would not have been impossible 50 years back, but thanks to technological sound enhancement, that can be made possible. Sound recording artist Resul Pookutty tirelessly worked with Shankar to come up with a few options which match Akshay’s voice and pitch.

Speaking to Bollywood Life, Oscar-winning Resul said: “We are working on it. After struggling for weeks, Shankar and I have discovered a method. We are not fully satisfied with the voice quality yet. In a while, we will get the perfect voice and pitch for Akshay.”

The pre release publicity will kick off in real earnest from October onwards. Later this month, the audio of the film is expected to be launched in Dubai, followed by a teaser release in Hyderabad and finally the trailer will be showcased in Chennai in December. The information was tweeted by Lyca Productions’ creative head Raju Mahalingam in September this year.

In 2.o, Rajinikanth will reprise his character Dr Vaseegaran and the robot Chiti while Akshay, who is making his Tamil debut, will play his antagonist Dr Richard. The film also stars Amy Jackson, Adil Hussain and Sudhanshu Pandey.